Whether you’ve been unemployed for a while or are just about to enter the job market, the advice of a professional and reliable career counselor could help you find out what’s going to be best for you. If you’re unfortunate enough to receive duff advice from an unreliable career counselor, you end up in the wrong job, a situation that could take you some time to put right. It’s worth taking the time to make sure a counselor is fully-qualified before using her.

Step 1

Contact your local employment office to find out about any state-run career advice services that operate in your area. You may be able to talk to a career counselor and get advice on resume preparation for free if you’re unemployed or are a young person from a low-income family. You may also be able to access job readiness workshops and other support services that could help you into work. If you’re disabled, touch base with your local vocational rehabilitation agency.

Step 2

Talk to the career office at your school or college. If you’re just coming to the end of a degree program, it will be likely that your university’s career service will be able to offer specialist advice on how to land a job in your area of interest. High school graduates who don’t want to continue their studies should be able to access more general career advice from counselors at their school. You may also be able to get advice from placement offices in private vocational or technical schools, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Contact trade associations that represent industries you’d like to work in to find out if they can recommend good sources of career advice for the line of work you want to get into. They may even be able to offer some guidance themselves.

Step 4

Look for private career counseling services in your local business directory. You’ll have to pay to use these, but could get access to seasoned HR professionals who will be able to give you the benefit of their expert opinion.

Step 5

Verify the credentials of any careers advice services you use by checking them out on the website of the National Board of Certified Counselors. You can also talk to friends and colleagues about the effectiveness of any career advice services they’ve used in the past.

About the Author

Michael Roennevig has been a journalist since 2003. He has written on politics, the arts, travel and society for publications such as "The Big Issue" and "Which?" Roennevig holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from the Surrey Institute and a postgraduate diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists at City College, Brighton.

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